Treebeard's Beloved
by Maiden of the Forests
Summary: I am an Entwife. And here I tell my story.


_**Disclaimer: **__Well, you know….I don't own the Ents or the Entwives. Or anything else. So there. Now you can't sue me. :D_

_**Author's Note: **__I've always been fascinated by obscure peoples. And you can't get much more obscure than Entwives. All Treebeard said about them was that….they left. And I got to wondering…..why did they leave? So I sat down one day and wrote this._

* * *

I am Fimbrethil, and I am an Entwife. Or that is what I am called in your tongue. If I told you my name in mine, it would take years of your time. I will tell you my story in your tongue, because if I told you it in mine, it would take more than years.

Knowing that you know only the tale you have heard from the Ents, I am sure that you think me a cold, heartless creature for leaving as I did. But that is not so. Time has passed, yet I still think of my beloved. Yes, I miss him at times, too. I miss the feel of his bark against mine, his arms embracing me, his deep eyes. I miss our Entings-I wonder what they are like now? Time enough has not yet passed that they would be fully grown. Time. How much time has passed? I do not know. We do not count years in this forest.

Fangorn, he was called. And in our time, we were beloved. To this day, I do not know exactly what happened. I simply left. No final farewell, no last look in those eyes. We drifted apart. Or rather, I drifted away. I do not understand why, I do not understand how. I fear I was dreadfully _hasty, _as my beloved would say.

I still remember him perfectly. Where is he now? Does he still reside in that same forest, the forest which I once thought dreadfully small and confining, and, dare I say it, boring? Or has he moved on? Sometimes I wish I could return. But then I think, he will not welcome me. And in spite of all, I am happy where I am. The trees in this forest are dear to me, almost as if they were my own Entings.

There are yet still other Entwives where I am. We keep the forest, just as our husbands did in days of old. We are now the protectors, the 'tree shepherds.' We are all happy in this role, mostly. I do not think of him as much now. Sometimes I fear I am forgetting, but do I want to remember? I do not know.

I love my trees. They are dear to me, very dear. Each is unique, each is different in its own way. They are family. They are friends. Such is how we Ents and Entwives see the trees in our forests. I could not leave my family, my friends, not now.

But there, I am laying my problems before you. I told you I would tell you my story, and I have not.

I remember when we met. It was a night soon after I had been born, or rather, my spirit had been awakened by Yavanna, our mother and patroness. It was moonlit, and as beautiful as you could imagine. We met in the forest. I first looked into those eyes that night. He embraced me and called me his beloved. I am afraid he was very _hasty _that night.

Ents do not _marry _in the sense of the word. But we were together. We simply _were. _We were one. We were beloved. He gave me the beginnings of my name that night. _A beautiful name for a beautiful one, _he had said. Oh, yes, he was _very _hasty.

But we never regretted this _hastiness. _I remember those years of bliss, those years of being together. I loved him, and he loved me. We kept the trees, _together. _They were _ours, _not his, not mine, _ours. _

I do not know what happened. We were happy, and then we were not. Suddenly the forest seemed small to me compared the world. Suddenly I wanted my own trees to shepherd, my own forest to live in. I still loved him, but I was restless. He was not. He was happy where we were, and he seemed to expect me to be, too.

And so I simply left. I drifted away, not because I no longer loved him, but because I no longer loved our forest. I wanted more.

I have never found the _more _I was looking for. I have simply found another forest. And really, this forest is smaller, more _confining. _Yet somehow I am happy here, almost happy. _Almost. _

Sometimes I fancy I hear him calling, _come back to me, come back to me. _And who knows but that sometime I may answer? Someday there may be young Entings in our forest one more.

* * *

_Alright, I hope that was consistent with Tolkien's writings. I'm afraid I didn't do as much research on this subject as I should have before writing this. If you see anything glaringly wrong, please correct me! _

_And that involves reviewing. So please review, even if it's only to tell me I got everything right? :D _


End file.
